Property

The island offers a wide range of attractive properties to suit the lifestyle you wish to lead. Guernsey’s Anglo-Norman heritage is clear in its rural retreats, or if you prefer, modern apartments and houses in the town centre are available with breath-taking sea views. The varied property market means you’ll find your perfect home.

Guernsey’s housing market & the right to work law

Because of the Island’s small size, there are some controls on who can come to live and work in Guernsey. These controls are in addition to the immigration controls of the Guernsey Border Agency (which relate only to non-EU passport holders).

The controls work by splitting the Island’s housing stock into two categories: Open Market and Local Market

There are no limits on the length of time that families in an Open Market property can live in Guernsey. But there are controls on who can live in the Island’s Local Market housing. In general, newcomers to the island will take up residence in Guernsey’s Open Market, but if employment is the primary reason for coming to live in Guernsey, then an Employment Permit may be awarded, entitling that person to live in Local Market property.

The controls on Local Market housing include controls on who can live in it and for how long. There will sometimes be other controls on the type of housing that a person can live in and the job they must do and the employer they must work for.

The Population Management Law

Implemented in 2017, the law requires everyone working to obtain a document from the Population Management team to show that they are lawfully housed. People living in Guernsey’s Open Market are of course entitled to work should they need to or want to.

The ethos of the Open Market (a straightforward and rapid method of residing in Guernsey) will be unchanged in this new system.

We recognize that the residency system in Guernsey is, in all likelihood, an unfamiliar one to anyone considering a move to the island. Early contact with the Locate Guernsey team will assist people considering a move to Guernsey and wanting to understand the system.